I do not know much about the emergent church so I can not comment on that aspect, except to say it could be a connection. However as a current Youth worker and High School Sunday school teacher let me say this: We are doing a very bad job of teaching our young people. This starts with elementary school education and goes all the way to our singles/college groups. I get 9th graders that come in to my class and they tell me they have been in church all their life. They have gone to vacation Bible school and any childrens program at our church locally and our state. I ask them very basic questions about Christianity and get a blank look. They are very uneducated about Christian deoctrine and know nothing about the Gospel. The sad fact is most adults in my church know so little about these things. How can we expect un-educated adults to teach anything to our kids? According to the Bible it is the responsibility of parents to educate children, not church people. When was the last time your church or denomination had a class or series of classes on teaching parents how to teach their children Biblical things? Let me guess, never in your lifetime? We need to start teaching our kids in elementary ages DOCTRINE! I know some are reading this and think kids that young can not grasp doctrine, but they can! They have in the past and they can now too. Please don't read this and think this is some "liberal" church. It is a church in a small town and most of the people think of themselves as Bible believing christians. It is a problem in many, if not most churches in this country.